Healthy Eating

Food and learning

At Compton Valley Nursery we’re proud to talk about the food we offer the children, our hygiene standards and our engaging techniques with healthy eating, but our responsibility doesn’t just stop there, in an increasingly demanding lifestyle were here to help advise people on how to get the whole family engaged in eating healthily, understanding food and where it comes from and keen to try out new experiences and tastes.

As a nursery we keep in touch with all associated bodies and government policies and strategies as well as media sources, for example: an article from the Telegraph on how nurseries should be more proactive in educating parents and children on healthy eating due to the increasing numbers of child obesity.

Our Food

Our food is locally and ethically sourced from excellent reputable suppliers, especially our meat: ‘The Butchers at Fermoys’, part of the Darts Farm group, Gribbles butchers and a local fishmonger who delivers. We use Devon Fresh based in Paignton for our fruit and vegetables.This means our ingredients spend very little time traveling, which enables us to prepare the freshest, tastiest ingredients in line with nutritional guidelines set by the government.

We like to engage the children with a balanced diet and a range of varied foods, cultural foods and we may carry the theme throughout the day in other activities to really develop an interest and understanding of the wider world around us.

Of course we are happy and able to meet any specific dietary needs a child might have whether these are due to a medical condition , cultural, religious or individual preference like vegetarian or vegan.
All of our meals are made from scratch on site to meet the dietary needs of the individual children, we are very proud of the quality of the food, the unique menus, and how we engage the children with their food, often the little ones will take it in turns to help prepare the food.

Food Hygiene

All of the staff are trained and hold a good understanding of food and hand hygiene, cross contamination and the importance of keeping rigid standards in the kitchen. All of this helps to minimise the spread of potentially harmful bacteria.

Food Advice

The staff can help update you with your particular foods that your child is keen or not so keen on, and working together we can try and engage with them from all sorts of different angles to encourage a healthy balanced diet. You can also learn more from our food advice page, which has lots of external links and advice.

Our Rooms

We seperate our children into the following care groups:

Ducklings – Baby Room: 3 months – 2 years

Squirrels – Toddler Room: 20 months – 3 years

Rabbits – Pre-School Room: 2 Years, 10 months – School Ready

Our Ratios

We ensure that at a minimum not a premium the following ratios are met: